The increasing customer demand for information supplied to homes and businesses has prompted telephone communication companies to upgrade their communication network infrastructures. In order to supply more information in the form of video, audio and telephony at higher rates, higher bandwidth communication networks are required. Conventional telephone communication network infrastructures utilize fiber optics and twisted copper pair wire to send communication data to a customer. Fiber optic cable supports a high bandwidth while, twisted copper wire supports relatively low bandwidth over long distances.
Generally, customers who are within two to three miles of a telephone company's central office (CO) are fed communication data solely using twisted copper pair. The twisted copper pair carries the phone signals as well as a -48 volts direct current (DC) power to operate and an alternating current (AC) to ring the phones. Large cables (thousands of pairs), are routed through the telephone central office switch and branch out to various manholes, poles, and cross-connect points to customer locations. For customers who are further away, a digital loop carrier (DLC) cabinet, hut, or buried vault is placed in an area and reaches up to a two-mile radius. High speed copper lines (T1, DS1, etc.) or fiber cable feed digital bits from the telephone central office to the DLC. The DLC converts the digital signal to an analog waveform required to operate the telephones. A copper cable (twisted copper pairs) relays the analog signals to a customer's home over a radius of two to three miles around the DLC site. The DLC cabinet contains its own batteries, power rectifiers, converters, and a connection for a portable generator. Additionally, the DLC cabinet is connected to an AC power feed from the local power company. For a business or residential customer requiring higher speed data than the standard telephony service, high speed copper or fiber data circuits are routed from the DLC or the CO to the customer location.
Conventional telephone networks utilizing DLCs are not capable of achieving the high bandwidths required by some customers. In order to achieve high bandwidths at a customer location, the fiber optic loop must be brought closer to the customer so that the copper cable is a sufficiently short distance and will be capable of supporting high data transfer rates. One major problem with bringing fiber cable within a short distance of a customer location is the need for an additional device which can receive digital video, data, and telephony signals from a DLC at a high data transfer rate and distribute the communication data to a plurality of customers. Conventional telephone networks utilizing DLCs do not have this capability since they are generally too far from the customer location.
As such, a need exists for a system and method for combining video, data, and telephony signals in a fiber optic communication network which brings fiber within a short distance of a customer location. The system must be capable of receiving, integrating, and distributing the video, data, and telephony signals and transmitting them along a single twisted copper pair to the customer location.